Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/423

 Brontë greatest artistic weakness. 'Villette' was finished, after many interruptions caused by ill-health and depression, at the end of 1852, and published in the following spring. Her extreme sensibility was shown by a desire to publish it anonymously, but its success was equal at the time to that of its predecessors.

Miss Brontë had now become famous, and the life at Haworth was interrupted by occasional visits to the friends who had gathered round her, in spite of the extreme shyness of a sensitive nature reared in such peculiar seclusion. Her visit to Mr. Smith in London in the end of 1849 was followed by others in June 1850, in June 1851, and in January 1853. In 1849 she met Thackeray, the contemporary whom she most admired, though she was a little puzzled to know whether he was 'in jest or earnest' in conversation, and complained of what she thought his perversity in satire. She mentions (, ii. 162) how she told him of his faults in 1850, and how his excuses were often worse than his crimes. Miss Brontë's sense of humour was feeble. In 1851 she attended one of his lectures, and the author of 'Jane Eyre' found herself the centre of observation to a London audience, and was introduced to Mr. Monckton Milnes (afterwards Lord Houghton). A description of Thackeray's sensitiveness to the opinions of his hearers is adapted to the case of M. Paul Emanuel in 'Villette.' Thackeray's impressions of Miss Brontë are given in a short introduction to a fragment called' Emma,' published in the 'Cornhill' for April 1860 (i. 485). She made the acquaintance of Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth in 1850, and while staying with him near Bowness the same August met her future biographer, Mrs. Gaskell, with whom she formed a warm friendship. An admiring criticism of Wuthering Heights' by Sydney Dobell in the 'Palladium' in September 1850 led to another warm friendship with the author. She met G. H. Lewes, whose early admiration of 'Jane Eyre' had pleased her, though she accepted with some difficulty his advice to study Miss Austen. He hurt her by a review of 'Shirley' in the 'Edinburgh' for June 1850, where she was annoyed by the stress laid upon her sex. 'I can be on my guard against my enemies,' she wrote pithily, 'but God preserve me from my friends !' Lewes appeared to her to be over-confident and dogmatic, but she respected him enough to say that he was guilty rather of 'rough play than of foul play.' Though she made it a duty to read all critiques, she was sensitive under reproof, and especially to any charge against her delicacy. A reviewer of 'Vanity Fair' and 'Jane Eyre' in the 'Quarterly' for December 1848 had brought against her the charge of coarseness. She asked Miss Martineau, whose acquaintance she had made in 1850, to tell her faithfully of any such fault in future novels. Miss Martineau promised and kept her word by condemning 'Villette' upon that and other grounds in the 'Daily News.' Miss Brontë had stayed in Miss Martineau's house, and, though repelled by some of her hostess's religious opinions, had refused to give up the friendship upon that account. This criticism of 'Villette' induced Miss Brontë to signify that their intercourse must cease (, p. 159). Miss Martineau afterwards wrote in the 'Daily News' a generous notice of Miss Brontë on her death.

A third offer of marriage had been made to Miss Brontë in the spring of 1851 by a man of business in good position, and was apparently favoured by her father. In July 1846 she had denied a report of an engagement to her father's curate, Mr. A. B. Nicholls (, i. 351 ;, i. 72). He is alluded to in 'Shirley' as the 'true Christian gentleman' who had succeeded the three curates. In December 1852 Mr. Nicholls proposed marriage, and Miss Brontë, though returning his affection, refused him next day at her father's dictation. Mr. Nicholls resigned his curacy and left Haworth. The father's unreasonable indignation gradually calmed as he saw that his daughter's health was suffering. In March 1854 Miss Brontë wrote with his consent to invite Mr. Nicholls to return. She had arranged that the marriage should not disturb her father's seclusion, and should be a gain instead of a loss of money. It took place accordingly on 19 June 1854, and while health lasted was productive of unmixed happiness. After a visit with her husband to his Irish relations she returned to Haworth, where in the next winter her health became precarious. She sank gradually, and died on 31 March 1855. The father survived her for six years, retaining his interest in public affairs and cherishing all memorials of his daughters. Mr. Nicholls continued to live with him, and a letter from Mr. Raymond, editor of the 'New York Times' (partly reprinted in Reid, p. 194), describes an interview with the two. Patrick Brontë died on 7 June 1861.

The works published by the three sisters are as follows : 1. 'Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell,' 1846. 2. 'Jane Eyre,' 1847. 3. 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Agnes Grey' (3 vols., of which 'Agnes Grey' is the last), 1847. 4. 'The Tenant of Wildfell